In Windows 7, when logged in as a specific user, you can adjust the screen saver settings so that when the screen saver activates subsequent interaction displays the login screen. More specifically, this is labeled in the settings UI as, "On resume, display welcome screen".
The result is that if the computer is left unattended, someone else attempting to use the computer will be required to login (provided there was sufficient idle time for the screen saver to activate).
1) This is a per-user setting based on the user currently logged in and so has to be set for every user
2) It can easily be disabled in the screen saver settings
Can anyone recommend a way to globally set, for all users, this sort of preference? Is there a global setting (system policy, registry setting) or a tool which can help here? The idea would be to cause a certain period of inactivity to lock the screen (require user login on subsequent interaction) regardless of which user is logged in.
Best Answer
From a related thread,
Most of these GPs should also prevent the setting from being changed locally.